rawlinson – us

Emily Why, oh, MRI

Well, just when we thought everything was groovy with Emily the Doctors today told us that things may not be. It seems her head is growing at an abnormally fast rate and there appears to be some swelling at her soft spot. Therefore our Doctor is going to schedule Emily for an MRI to check for hydrocephalus.

I just found out from Lisa by the phone and she didn’t really have much to say on the subject, so of course, I did a quick search to learn about the condition. Sadly, I can’t say I’m too happy with what I learned. Hopefully, if she has hydrocephalus, it hasn’t done any damage yet. Supposedly, the fluid build-up can cause brain damage, vision damage (possibly blindness), speach and motor impairments, and in the worst situations where it is untreated for too long, death.

I can’t even begin to express how upset I am at this moment. I don’t really know anything and won’t until Emily has her MRI – but what if this pressure has been hitting her for the past three months and it the damage is already done? I’ll be pretty pissed off to start. I know Doctors can’t see everything but if she has it then it sure would have been nice to have had earlier detection.

On the bright side the webpages do say that if detected in time then the baby just needs to have a shunt surgically implanted in her brain (that sounds pretty serious to me) and the shunt will drain the excess fluid to be absorbed by the body. With a successfully shunt implant it is said that Emily would lead a normal life with little chance for impairment. That is if the implant goes smooth, she doesn’t get an infection, and that the shunt doesn’t fail at any point in time – something that is known to happen. If it does fail then she would need additional surgury to fix the shunt – thus raising the risk of infection again.

I’m sure it isn’t as bleak as I make it sound but it is hard not to worry – this is my daughter were talking about. Anway, if the shunt were to ever malfunction we are supposed to look for “telltale” signs that fluid is building up again:

• headache
• vomiting
• fever
• irritability and personality changes
• deterioration in performance – school work, gait, balance, and concentration
• lethargy and drowsiness
• dizziness and in more severe cases
• vision disturbances
• seizures

So, if it turns out Emily needs the shunt make sure you have this list printed out and saved in memory so when we are visiting you will know what to look for. I fear we will be rushing to the emergency room every time our little sweetie gets the flu.